Graffiti has the power to express underlying social and political messages from minority societies. I’m currently very interested in minority identities and voices within Berlin. I hope to gain an insight into this concept through the medium of street art. I’m still in the very early stage of forming my ideas because i’ve come across so many cool concepts and directions my research could take. I’m hoping keeping an open mind will benefit my project. My current methodology ideas include surveying peoples’ opinions of certain street art images and what they perceive the message is trying to convey.I hope to be able to interview an actual German street artist and question his or her motives and messages. I’m curious to see whether their purpose matches up with the perceived message. I also want to explore the general attitude towards graffiti. Do people think it’s art or vandalism? I also hope to find a professor at Humbolt that is familiar with my topic and could give me direction advice and research information.The assigned text gave me some more insight to graffiti. It’s currently being "used mainly by young men from lower classes to gain public esteem through quantity, willingness to take risks, and dispersion of their pieces”. I love the idea that "urban art as both a manifestation of the self and a practice of resistance”. I think the coexistence of these two concepts is really powerful. This article gave me a lot of foundation on my topic, through the discussion of urban art in social protests and overall creative activism. Other research I have done include viewing images of Berlin street art. I still have a lot of work to do, but I’m really excited and interested in my topic. Text: Creative Activism and Art (2014) Eva Youkhana

Gentrification Reflection The demographics of the island I grew up on are incredibly culturally uniform. It was filled with either older white couples that moved to retire, or middle-aged white couples with children I went to school with. At my high school, I’m pretty sure we had a total of 2 African American families, a handful of Hispanic families, and zero Indian or Native American. To me, it feels like the exact opposite of Seattle and I couldn’t be happier living here now. The size of my town stayed relatively the same. We never got many new students in my classes or new families moving it down the street, but one instance of gentrification has really stayed with me. It was quarter mile walk from my porch to the edge of the island where my bench was located. In high school, I visited this bench frequently, like when I was stuck on my AP Literature and Composition essay or when I just couldn’t sleep. My favorite time to go was when the stars and the moon are shining. To get to this bench, I walked through a small portion of calming forest. The whole process was very ritualistic to me. When I came back over winter break, I saw that they tore down my forest and my bench. They were building a new housing development and creating a new neighborhood. I felt so heartbroken when I realized that my safe haven was gone, which I’m sure is similar to what the regulars of Capitol Hill thought when being “invaded by the whoo girls”. This article is my first experience with the term and concept of gentrification. From the article I’ve learned that gentrification is “any facet of urban renewal that inevitably leads to displacement of the occupying demographic”. The hate crime at the beginning of the article was one of the most disturbing incidences I’ve ever read. People in the LGBTQ+ community and others have been severity affected by the gentrification of Capitol Hill in terms of hate crimes, unwelcoming community, and raises in rents. This pushed many native people out of their own home and community.

I’m assuming since Berlin is a large city, it would also be affected by gentrification in its many forms. I’m unfamiliar with the specifics of German gentrification, but I want to know how much culture has been lost in Berlin, and Seattle, due to these “invasions”. Interview Reflection

After class Saturday, I walked around to try and find someone who looked somewhat approachable and not too busy. I kept telling myself “oh the worst thing they could say is no” and many of them did. But I found a man at Suzzallo who was happy to help me with my assignment. He was in his early 20s and was working on something on his computer when I approached him. When I asked the question, he kind of laughed because he thought there were so many issues going on right now he didn’t know which one he would explain to a Berliner. He finally settled on the black rights movement, Ferguson, and #blacklivesmatter. He thought that this was something prevalent in Seattle currently. I thanked him for taking the time to talk to me and then I left. I didn’t have too much of an issue going up to a random stranger as I thought it would and it was actually kind of fun to get someone else’s view. Observational Reflection I chose a bench outside of Guggenheim to start my observations. I crossed my legs and closed my eyes. The sun was warm on my face but paired nicely with a soft breeze so I didn’t get too hot. On the bench next to me, an interview was going on between two men. The younger man had his resume and research out and they quietly discussed it. He was working on chemical kinetics (I think??) but it was hard to hear/understand everything that was being said. I also heard birds and construction and people talking in the distance. I smelled the fresh air and the soup I had just bought at the hub. When I opened my eyes, I saw several people laying the grass or walking leisurely to a destination. If I were to do this assignment again, I would try to observe more and take in as many sensory things as I possible could. I still felt like I was thinking too much instead of just being and feeling the world around me.

Growing up on a small, predominately white and elderly filled island, I was never exposed to concepts of “race”, “identity” and “culture”. The University of Washington has opened my mind to so many social issues and ideas. When we did the identity wheel exercise in class, I felt pretty lost. The examples given didn’t really apply to me. I’m white, upper-middle class, with no political standpoint and no religious views. I felt like the most boring person ever with no identity. But after reading these pieces, and in class discussion, I realized that identities could be anything. I am an American, a daughter, a student, a scientist, and I’m unique. That part of class discussion was really cool to me. I’m really interested in racism and social activism because the University of Washington is really my first experience with both. Racism isn’t a direct course topic, but I feel that it falls strongly under national identity. I really connected to the NPR “German Minorities Still Fight To Be Seen, Heard” piece. In the article, it said Germany still strongly linked ethnicity to national identity. Last week in EDUC 360, we talked a lot about racism and microagressions. In the United States, associating race with national identity can considered a racial microagression which are detrimental to both the perpetrator and the victim. There was a clear example of microagressions within the piece. “Where are you from?” It surprised me that there are no national debates on racism, yet surveys consistently show most Germans don't want foreigners in their country. This is very unlike the US because there is a HUGE national debate on racism. It really stood out to me how Carl Camura said "White Germans do not perceive themselves as racist at all. The idea is there are no other races in Germany. Germany is a monoracial country so we can't be racist. It's pretty easy”. This statement struck me as horribly heartbreaking. I hope to see it in person while in Berlin. For research, I’m strongly drawn to social activism through street art. I know without a doubt, I want to do research on art and art analysis because, as a STEM major, it’s not something I would normally get the chance to research. Currently, I’m open to changes within the exact topic as long as it has to do with art. The graffiti images on the Berlin Wall within the “Ghosts of Berlin” were powerful to me and I’m so excited to see them while study abroad. My preliminary research question is “how does social activism through art differ from East and West Berlin?”